Exelan Dry

The Lam Research Exelan Dry is a dry etch tool used in semiconductor manufacturing.^[5][4]

A dry etcher removes material from a wafer using a plasma-based process rather than liquid chemical etching. The tool uses controlled process gases, vacuum conditions, and powered reaction chambers to shape films and patterns on semiconductor wafers.

A dry etch chamber is a process module within an etch system. The chamber provides the controlled environment where the wafer is exposed to the etching plasma and where process variables are adjusted to select material removal and profile control.

The Exelan Dry sits in the etch portion of the wafer fabrication flow. The tool operates after pattern transfer by lithography and before later device formation steps that depend on the etched features.

Dry etch equipment is used when directional material removal and feature definition are required on patterned wafers. The process is commonly integrated with mask-defined patterning and downstream clean or metrology steps.

Dry etch tools are used for pattern transfer into semiconductor films and layers. The class is used for removing selected materials from patterned wafers in device fabrication.